#6 (Part II)

#6 How Lunch With Thunder Went Terribly Wrong (Part II)

     “Taddeo! Please, you’re embarrassing me!” Thunder holds up the bottle of bubbly water, shakes it.
     “Ahno!” Taddeo runs over, his apron flapping at his knees. He has red sauce all over his hands. “It is ordered special. A man brought this in today, for his pretty bride. I make the dinner. Now I must call and say I cannot do this for him. I have ruined the bottle. It was a perfect bottle. It is ruined now!” Taddeo’s words slur into an accent the more upset he becomes. He pulls at his hair, the red sauce smearing across his forehead and over an ear. “Not that you are not pretty. Is she not pretty, Thunder? She is so pretty. Maybe, soon, you give her a ring?” By the end of his small speech I struggle to translate. 
     Since Thunder is looking more than embarrassed, his wide brown eyes not meeting mine, I jump in. “Thunder and I are good friends, but not lovers. I’m helping him find his paramour.”
     It is the wrong thing to say. 
     I don’t know if Thunder knows Italian. Each complaint, growl, lecture was met by Thunder bobbing his head. Even with Thaddeo grumbling at Thunder the language sounded Romantic. Thunder’s shoulders rise up around his ears as the seconds pass. He’s beginning to look like a bodybuilder who has gone lost his neck somewhere. 
     I take pity on Thunder.